Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Standards-Based Reform On Special Education: An Exploration Of Westvale Elementary School, Jessica Kim Bacon

Teaching and Leadership - Dissertations

A critical, interpretivist, qualitative study, this project examines how standards-based reform impacts special education at an urban school, called Westvale Elementary School. The school was labeled a Persistently Low Achieving school under the No Child Left Behind Act and was thus required to undergo a "transformation" process. The demographics of the school at the time of the study were: over 95% free and reduced lunch, 40% Limited English Proficiency, and over 20% students with disabilities. The racial makeup of the school is: 50% Hispanic or Latino, 35% Black or African American, and 10% white. My methodological approach drew primarily upon …

Educational Genocide: Examining The Impact Of National Education Policy On African American Communities, Christopher B. Knaus, Rachelle Rogers-Ard

The Bridge: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Legal & Social Policy

Abstract This paper clarifies the cumulative impact of the current national education policy on African-American children, which ultimately aims to limit local control of urban schools. The authors argue that urban schools in the United States are increasingly required to rely upon temporary teachers who are trained to implement a curriculum focused on standardized testing. The No Child Left Behind Act and the current Duncan administration’s approach to closing (and re-opening) schools combines to further exclude low-income community involvement in local schools. These efforts to control the development, hiring, and evaluation of local educators further expands educational racism that silences …

A Multi-Site Case Study Investigating Teacher Perspectives Of Standards Based Reform And Gifted Students, Amy Valadez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The push by the Federal government to directly increase and positively impact achievement since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2001) gave rise to the educational design known as standards based reform (SBR). This legislation impacted all sub-groups by measuring growth for sub-populations to determine yearly adequate progress. The growth of the sub-population of gifted students, however, was not included in the determination of a school's or county's success, so the impact of standards based reform on the gifted student is lacking. Therefore, this case study examined educators' perspectives of standards based reform on the gifted child in …

Implications Of The No Child Left Behind Legislation On Career And Technical Education, Thomas Kyle Wallace

Dissertations

The passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in 2001 brought about a multitude of education reform policies for education institutions that made the future of Career and Technical Education’s (CTE) role in secondary educations unclear. These mandates forced educational leaders to emphasize student enrollment in tracks that prepare them for post-secondary educational opportunities that require a stronger background in academic courses. The standards-based mandates required by NCLB legislation make promotion of CTE courses more difficult because these courses are primarily elective courses and have caused educational agencies to look at what CTE programs provide in terms of meeting …

A Tale Of Two Systems: Principals’ Concerns With Nclb Testing And School Resource Availability, Jeffrey J. Dupree

Journal of Contemporary Research in Education

This study examined the patterns, and discrepancies regarding concerns of principals with NCLB annual testing and school resource availability. An ethnographic approach was used to determine the attitudes of eight middle school principals from high resource availability, average resource availability, and low resource availability. From the responses of the participants, one of the themes that emerged was concerns with NCLB testing. The patterns which emerged for concerns with NCLB testing were: stress, finances, and content. Principals from all resource groups other than high resources spoke in detail about the stress that they felt NCLB testing was creating within their schools. …

Getting Ready For The Test: The Impact Of School Restructuring On High School English Teachers, Todd Sloan Cherner

Doctoral Dissertations

As debates about how to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) continue, educational stakeholders need to consider the impact that No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB) accountability policies put on teachers working in low performing schools. Specifically, schools that annually struggle to achieve adequate yearly progress based on student test scores are narrowing the curriculum they offer students down to only teaching testable skills (Crocco & Costigan, 2007). As such, students who attended a school that taught them a narrowed curriculum only learned how to take high stakes tests and not how to compete in the 21^st century …

Interactive Whiteboard Use: The Catalyst Of Student Achievement, Tenneille Terrell Lamberth

Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 forced school districts to become more accountable by requiring all students to read on grade level by the year 2014. However, President Obama’s educational policy shift is allowing states to develop their own accountability and improvement system. This study examined fourth and eighth grade math achievement on the Mississippi Curriculum Test, 2nd edition and interactive whiteboard use, attitudes and perceptions, and professional development. Data were collected from 21 participating Mississippi Gulf Coast area schools to determine if a correlation existed between fourth and eighth grade math achievement and interactive whiteboard use, …

The Effect Of The Parent Liaison On Latino Student High School Completion And Parent Involvement, Jeanne Thompson Walker

Dissertations

The graduation rate for Latinos in the United States has consistently lagged behind the high school completion rate of White and Asian students in the United States. Efforts to bring equity to schools and improve high school success among Latinos have been inconsistent even after the implementation of No Child Left Behind Legislation. The use of a Spanish speaking parent liaison is gaining momentum as an intervention strategy in elementary schools, often funded by Title 1 grants to schools with large populations of socio-economically disadvantaged students. The Parent Liaison position is also being utilized in some high schools to encourage …

The Impact Of The No Child Left Behind Act And School Choice On Student Achievement, Wendy Ruddell Pettett

Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, signed into law in January 2002, established a decade of test-driven school reform in an attempt to increase student achievement and reduce the student achievement gap. The state of Georgia created the Criterion Reference Competency Test (CRCT) to align with the guidelines of NCLB. This study examined longitudinal student achievement data on eighth grade math CRCT in 25 middle schools from 2002–2007 and 2008–2011 in a large suburban school district in Georgia.

The study found that all subgroups increased in student achievement from the onset of NCLB in 2002–2011. Furthermore, the study found …

The Systemic Impact Of The Implementation Of The Response To Intervention Model In Elementary Schools, Annette Robin Cronin

Dissertations

The intention of this study was to examine three factors regarding the implementation of the Response to Intervention (RtI) model. First, the study discovered what professional development opportunities were afforded to administrators and certified faculty to support the implementation of the RtI model within schools that make AYP and those that did not make AYP. Second, the study investigated the awareness and utilization of Early Intervening funds within schools that make AYP and those that did not make AYP. Lastly, this study examined how schools monitor student progress within the RtI model for schools that made AYP and those that …

Confusing Achievement With Aptitude, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

My wife and I read and reread the words several times, allowing them to sink in. "Being in an academic class would cause him harm," the principal wrote about our son, "as the rigor would be too great." The report continued, "He would be the lowest-ability student in the class and by a large margin." It is a day you don't soon forget when the principal of your son's school tells you—in an email, no less—that your child simply is not capable of managing academic work. [excerpt]

Beating The Odds, Michael F. Addonizio, C. Philip Kearney

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Secondary School Administrators' Perception Of Leading And Implementing No Child Left Behind Mandates For Alabama Students With Disabilities, Janet Mcconis Jenkins

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT This qualitative study looked at the lived experiences of middle school and high school administrators when leading and implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and additional mandates of NCLB of 2004 for students with disabilities in their schools. An attempt was made through face-to-face interviews to explore and exam-ine what experiences and training these administrators had as the instructional leader for students with disabilities. NCLB mandates placed stipulations for school success in the hands of the school administrators. In an era of high stakes accountability, the traditional role of the school administrator as the disciplinarian …

Education Reform And The Limits Of Policy: Lessons From Michigan, Michael F. Addonizio, C. Philip Kearney

Upjohn Press

By examining a major set of education policy reforms undertaken in Michigan and across the country over the past 20-plus years, Addonizio and Kearney are able to reveal the varying success of innovations such as finance reform, state assessment of student performance, school accountability measures, charter schools, and schools of choice.